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Q: Tenth planet ( Answered,   1 Comment )
Question  
Subject: Tenth planet
Category: Arts and Entertainment
Asked by: shoaib-ga
List Price: $2.00
Posted: 19 Jan 2003 18:53 PST
Expires: 18 Feb 2003 18:53 PST
Question ID: 145734
There are news that astronomers have discovered 'tenth planet or icy
world' beyond Pluto planet in the Solar system. Please provide
"details" of the tenth planet.
Answer  
Subject: Re: Tenth planet
Answered By: gitana-ga on 19 Jan 2003 20:34 PST
 
Dear Shoaib,

What an interesting question.

An ABC News article titled “Tenth Planet?” reports that two teams of
scientists have found evidence of a large body that may be a tenth
planet 3 trillion miles away.  The presence of this large body could
explain why comets are often redirected in their orbits. The
scientists have yet to definitively verify that this phenomenon is due
to a planet but one states “If I was betting, it’s better than 50-50
odds that it’s there”  (Chang,1999).

The scientists quoted in this article hypothesize that this body is as
large or larger than Jupiter, the largest known planet in the solar
system.  They estimate that it is a half light year from the sun,
therefore too dim to be seen (Chang, 1999).  Given this, one can
surmise that this body is huge and dark.  There is no verifiable
evidence as to the quality of the surface or atmosphere.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/planet991007.html


Another article on Space.com provides more details about the
controversy.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/outer_planets_991014.html

The Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), NASA’s Infrared
Astrophysics Data Center has been inundated with questions about the
mysterious planet and denied any such discovery as of 2000.
http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/tchester/iras/no_tenth_planet_yet.html

NASA itself has very little to say about the matter:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/educ/fyeo/faq/tenth.htm

Other items of interest:

“Is There a Tenth Planet?”
http://www.sciencenet.org.uk/database/Physics/SolarSystem/p00913a.html

“Tenth Planet”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A410941


In the end the whole matter remains a mystery. 
Perhaps they should ask Dr. Who  ;-)
http://www.who-central.co.uk/Tenth%20Planet.html


Search Strategy:
“Tenth Planet”
“NASA” 

I hope this has been helpful,  
Gitana
Comments  
Subject: Re: Tenth planet
From: highroute-ga on 20 Jan 2003 08:54 PST
 
Are you thinking of the announcement in October 2002 that the
planet-like body named "Quaoar" was discovered? You can see one of
many press releases about that discovery here:
  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1003_021007_quaoar.html

There is some question whether Quaoar should be called the tenth
planet because there is great controvery about whether Pluto is the
ninth. Some now consider Pluto to be merely a large and relatively
close "Kuiper belt object", not worthy of being called a planet. There
is a lot of stuff out there that revolves around the sun. Which of
those hunks deserve to be called planets?

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